Do you know Fukagawa Edo Museum?
This museum reproduces the old town of the late Edo period around 200 years ago. The name of that town is Saga-cho.
They say the name Saga-cho came from the similar shape of Saga Minato port in Hizen-Han as the former feudal domain in Kyushu area.
Saga-cho was located near Nihombashi as the biggest downtown in Edo city.
Besides, there were three canals below connected to Sumida-gawa River, such as Sendai-bori, Nakano-hori and Abura-bori.
Therefor Saga-cho was good place for water transportation.
Rice, lumber, fertilizer, foods, water, fuel were carried through the canals, and people as well.
They used small boats to transport them.
Kinds of boat were Choki-bune (See Figure 1-1.), Oshokuri-bune and the like.
And many warehouses were built here in Saga-cho for the sake of storage the goods.
One more, About Hoshikaba.
Hoshikaba was the market for hoshika and shimekasu, two types of fertilizer.
Hoshika are dried sardines.
Shimekasu are boiled sardines after pressing out the fish oil.
They were brought by sea, mostly from the Boso area in Chiba prefecture, and were distributed nationwide as fertilizer for cotton flax, indigo, tea, tobacco, rice and more.
There was a hoshikaba named “Motoba” here in Saga-cho before.
(--Many years have passed--)
Today, Choki-bune and Oshokuri-bune on the canals were gone.
A lot of cars run instead.
Hoshikaba does not exist anymore here.
Warehouses changed to apartment houses (or flats) one after another.
Now, I just live in Saga-cho actually.
Why don’t you come to real Saga-cho after visiting old Saga-cho in the museum?
Figure 1-1. Shape of Choki-bune
Maps of canals in Saga-cho in the 19th Century
Figure 2-1. Canals (19th Century)
Pictures of canals in Saga-cho in the 21st Century
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